Many guitar students just let the left hand thumb fall anywhere where it feels comfortable. The result? An inability to play even simple chords and fingers not being able to reach fret locations. So guitar students should keep the thumb slightly closer to the hand from where the exact center of the back of the neck is located and also positioned directly in between the second and third fingers. This will balance the left hand and also allow it to be ready for any fingering patterns. The left hand is required to run a lot of tasks while playing the guitar, and classical repertoire in particular makes hefty demands. For this reason it is important to set up your left hand correctly right from the beginning of your development. If you establish a solid foundation then you will put yourself in the best position to improve and develop quickly. So, in order to have the fingers hop around freely on the fingerboard the thumb should remain around the center of the neck.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,854,370 discloses a fingerboard having a light transmitting substrate spaced from the neck of a guitar or a similar musical instrument. A plate, which has a finger placement pattern on it, is received in the space between the neck and the fingerboard. The plate is opaque and the finger placement pattern has light transmitting areas. Light is transmitted from a source within the neck through the light transmitting areas to the fingerboard, thus guiding finger placement.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,505,178 discloses a training device for building hard callus pads on the ends of the fingers used in chording the guitar and to strengthen the muscles used to press strings against frets. The device is provided with raised edges simulating the cross-section and texture of actual guitar strings. The raised edges are mounted on a spring loaded button to simulate the give and tension felt in making chords. The entire device is easily held and fits in any pocket or purse.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,064,260 discloses a small, portable device with a rigid, short neck body, u-shaped in cross-section and designed to simulate a short section of the neck of a stringed instrument, such as a guitar. The neck body is hollow with an elongated main cavity with two or more, transversely aligned finger bars which mimic guitar frets. Each finger bar is mounted on two or more coil springs enabling it to move up and down on the neck body. The top of each finger bar is flat and includes four to six raised string lines that represent strings on a stringed instrument. The main cavity is divided into a plurality of finger bar cavities by a plurality of support ribs. When at rest, the top surfaces of the finger bars are elevated above the support ribs and represent frets on the neck body.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,304,224 discloses a practice and exercise device with a fingerboard on the front of a housing, a plurality of strings, and a circuit to generate an A, D, or E tone. The circuit includes touch sensitive switches, which are in operable communication with the fingerboard. The fingerboard includes at least one fret fixed transversely across the fingerboard and visually distinguishable markings. The markings are located at positions on the fingerboard corresponding to tones A, D, and E, and the touch sensitive switches are located beneath the markings. When the trainee touches the markings the appropriate tone is emitted.
US2010/0192751 discloses a hand position training aid for a guitar, comprising a spacer bar adapted to be attached along an edge of a neck of a guitar, parallel to the strings of the guitar. Clips connected to the spacer bar operate to engage the neck of the guitar to retain the spacer bar in position on the neck of the guitar.
None of the prior art addresses the fundamental problem of positioning of the thumb on the back of the guitar neck and the need to develop sufficient strength in wrist muscles to maintain the correct position. The invention described herein discloses a guitar training aid that will assist learners in developing good fundamentals in positioning their thumb on the back of the guitar neck and also building sufficient wrist strength to hold this position while playing for extended periods of time.